California is a wonderful place for all things related to mind, spirit, psychology, and the inner journey. Especially wonderful is Santa Cruz which happens to be home to an enlightened master named Mokshananda (who knows how many enlightened beings are in this town, perhaps quite a few.) I wanted to go to a dharma gathering of some sort and meet some like minded individuals, and also to continue my ongoing process of inquiry. So, I looked in the Santa Cruz area and found quite a few options. Big on my list to visit are Vipassana Santa Cruz, and the Burmese monastery in nearby Boulder Creek. But I found a gathering with Mokshananda to be the first event which really fit well with my schedule, so a couple months back I went. I'd been meaning to write something about it for a while, but it's also been nice to let it sink in a bit and be able to write on it with some perspective.
I found Mokshananda on the website of Adyashanti, who apparently was one of Mokie's teachers. Of course, one of the most obvious things about both these teachers is their use of funky Hindu names despite the fact that they are zen teachers who are white guys from California. Even funnier is that Mokshananda goes by Mokie, and Adyashanti goes by Adya. But, whatever... we're all a little quirky I guess.
The Adyashanti lineage seems to teach a sorta amorphous non-dual enlightenment that's only very loosely based on zen, and is most commonly transmitted through Satsangs (a hindu concept which basically means a community gathering "sangha" to explore truth "sat"). So, it's got a very Advaita (Hindu non-duality) feel to it as well.
Anyway, I went to see Mokshananda and found it particularly amusing that he decided not to give a themed talk on that particular day. He started by saying "well, most of you seem like familiar faces and have heard everything I have to say, so I'll just open it up to questions instead." Doh! I haven't heard any of it, yet! In fact, I'd never heard anything from Mokie before, since I only found him on another website and decided to check it out because it was close by. What's also funny is that the one time I went to see Gil Fronsdal he also decided not to give a talk, but rather just answer questions instead. Oh well.
I arrived a minute or two late for the gathering and so everyone was already sitting in silence. Mokie was sitting on the big red couch in the front of the living room, and everyone else was scattered throughout, sitting on the floor or in chairs. I found out later that this was actually Mokie's house I was sitting in. Cool! It's not often that a spiritual teacher just says "hey, c'mon into my house and let's talk."
He had on an Independent beanie (a skateboarding brand) and he looked pretty peaceful sitting on his couch in silence. What was also obvious very quickly is that almost everyone there was older than me with the majority being over forty, and maybe a couple folks nearer to my age. Mokie looked like maybe about forty years old himself, but maybe he just looks good for his age (edit: I just found out he's in his late fortys). It was quite an eclectic group too, like maybe comprised of ex-hippies. No matter - I was happy to be there, whatever the crowd.
Although I didn't really get too much sense of what the teaching was, I really enjoyed hearing Mokie's responses to questions, and enjoyed asking a question of my own. I'm not sure his answer helped me too much, however. He was big on the practice of asking the question "who am I?"
So, in the end I can't say much about him as a teacher. I still feel fairly unacquainted with who he is. But, he did have a very welcoming attitude and made it clear that I was certainly welcome to come back again. I may take him up on that, as I like the idea of a simple teacher living locally and easily accessible.
